Behind the Curtain
by EreshkigalGirl
Summary: A collection of missing and extended scenes with a Rayney twist.
1. Our Mrs Reynolds

"_Damnit, Mal, I'd treat her alright."_

"_She's not to be bought! Nor bartered, or borrowed, or lent. She's a human woman who doesn't know damn thing about the world and needs our protection."_

"_Oh, I'll protect her."_

"_Jayne. Go play with your rain stick."_

With that parting shot, Mal turned and loped down the stairs before Jayne could come up with a suitable comeback. Cussing the hell out of the stingy captain for not knowing a good trade when he saw one, Jayne stomped across the catwalk in the direction of his bunk. Honestly now, did Mal really think that some brainless bit of tail who did whatever she was told with no second thought to nobody was better than his prize rifle? Vera was a lot more useful, did as she was told, just the same, and since she didn't talk, she couldn't clutter the air with senseless, girly, gobbledygook.

Giggles from near 'Nara's shuttle door caught his ear, and Jayne bit back a growl at being caught in humiliation by the crazy girl. He turned to find her leaning her arms against the rail, and sort of bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her eyes followed the captain down the stairs before they turned to take in Jayne and Vera. She cocked her head as she stared at the rifle.

"You see somethin' funny here, girl?"

"She's mad at you. Not nice trying to trade her," she said.

He glanced guiltily down at the gun in his grip.

"No worries, Jayne," the girl assured him. She turned her face back to watch the Captain and his new wife as they conversed in the bay below them. "She's not a good match for you, and certainly not for the Captain. Be glad he didn't take the trade soon enough. Elder Gomman gave you the better gift—though she's lying about that too."

"How the hell you know that?" Jayne demanded.

The girl glanced at him. "You'll see. Go make up with Vera. Give her a massage and tell her she's pretty. Take her out dancing later."

"Guns don't dance."

"Guns don't. Weapons do."

"Not any that I ever seen."

"Eleven months and twenty-three days until you retract that statement."

She pushed away from the rail, and glided away, quiet as a cat.

"Just what the hell does that mean?" he called after her.

"The rain is scarce, comes only when it's most needed. And so it is with men like you," she repeated the Elder's words.

"What does that _mean_?! Hey! Girl! I'm talkin' at you! Ai ya, huai le, nobody on this boat takes me seriously.


	2. The Message

"_Now for psychology that don't sound half dumb._ _My kinda life don't last long, Preacher. I expect I'm invested in making good sport of it whilst I can. You gonna read over me when I get taken down, Shepherd?"_

"_Well I suspect you'll be around long after we're all…"_

"_What the hell is she—what the hell are you doing?"_

"_Now, River, that's not…"_

"_I'm very comfortable."_

"_I guess we do all have different reactions to death."_

Jayne didn't even hear him. He was too busy being horrified by Little Crazy. Now, that girl had done some creepy-ass things while on this ship, he reckoned, but lying on a coffin took the prize. He ignored the Preacher's calming influence and marched over, grabbed the girl's arm, and pulled her to her feet. "Don't know what you was allowed to do in the past, but you ain't gonna be desecratin' no dead man's final rest, dong le ma?"

"Dead?" She tilted her head to the side and gave him a truly confused look.

"Yeah, dead. As in not livin'. As in corpse."

"He's not dead," she whispered as her focus dropped back to the casket. "Much too quiet to be dead. The dead scream, but he whispers so soft. Ice planets and snowballs."

Jayne dropped his hand from her arm. This girl got nuttier by the minute. He jumped when she looked back up at him.

"Taste of medicine and a stomach on the sea. I know how he feels."

"Uh…?"

She glanced down at the coffin one more time before gliding out of the bay back down to the passenger area. Jayne watched her go. He took off his hat to run a hand over his hair. "I broken windah's that weren't as cracked as her."

"Yes, River is quite…" Book fumbled for a gentle term, "odd. She has her own way of viewing the world."

Jayne nodded and went back to the weight bench.

&&&

When the kid woke up and started screaming on the Doc's exam table, Jayne jumped, but he couldn't say he was surprised.

"_Spry for a dead fella!"_

Mal wrestled the not-dead screaming man to the floor. Once Tracey had the presence of mind to notice his own nakedness, Jayne tilted his head to see around the end of the sick bed. Now if that wasn't a sight—Mal straddling a naked man. Jayne snickered wondering just how close "Sarge" got with some of his war buddies.

They got the boy up off the floor and wrapped the sheet around his nethers. He sat up on the table again, and the Doc attached some funny thing to his finger, and had Tracey hold a piece of gauze to the little incision wound to stop the bleeding. He apologized to the doctor, and while that was real interesting and all, Jayne wondered where the gold was. Or platinum, or untraceable credits, or even another cunningly concealed herd of cows.

"_Bring that pan, please."_

Jayne looked to his right and found the bed pan. He brought it over still confused when Simon just has him hold it up at about chest-height. And suddenly the boy heaves. Oh, now that was disgusting.

_Shoulda seen that coming, Cobb,_ he scolded himself as he took the pan over to the small sink at the back of the room. He washed his hands, and moved back to lean against the counter. Apparently the boy was having a heart attack, but that turned out not to be so either. _This kids just full'a surprises,_ Jayne mentally griped.

The sensors picking up Tracey's heartbeat start picking up from their already fast pace, and Jayne thought maybe he'd get to see a heart attack after all. But when they followed the soldier's gaze, he was staring at Kaylee in the doorway. Well, now that should be mightily interesting what with the Doc having his pansy claim on her.

Kaylee stared and started asking questions of the "Weren't he just dead?" variety, but Jayne's focus slid to the girl who slipped up behind Kaylee. She just peeked her head around the corner using Kaylee as her shield. The girl's eyes looked Tracey over, and Jayne waited to see her reaction. Instinct told him that if she gave her approval, he was okay to be trusted. If not…well, they'd see.

She took in the ex-soldier's abnormally pale skin. It must be from pretending to be dead because Jayne remembered her waking up in that box and thinking that he'd never seen someone not a stiff look that pale in his life. Then they'd been in St. Lucy's with her looking just as pale while she was asleep. Now this guy who just woke up from being corpsified was just beginning to get some color back.

The girl swept over the gauze Tracey held to his throat, the medical thingy on his finger, and then stared at his face for a long minute. Her eyes narrowed, and she pulled away from the door. She met Jayne's eye briefly, and both of them looked away when she turned to leave.

Jayne decided to keep an eye on the boy. There was something off about him.

It didn't surprise him when he turned on them and had to be put down. Nope, not a surprise at all.


	3. Serenity BDM pt 1

**Un-Beta'd, so all mistakes are mine:** **Post-BDM**

God, he heated hospitals. This one was especially horrible, if that was possible. It was only the med bay of one of the surviving Alliance ships, but those things were flying cities themselves—they couldn't land, and even had to be built in space because they would never get the damned things off the ground if they built it planet-side. The med bay was big enough to hold a third of the ship's crew at once when it was fully staffed, and thanks to the Reavers, it wasn't at full staff, so the ASS _Galahad_ had room for five more patients.

Jayne refused a sickbed. He was the quickest to take care of. The surgeon dug the bullet out of his shoulder, patched him up, and gave him an antibiotic to stop infection. Now he wanted to walk around, and since the wound was in his shoulder, not his foot, nobody tried to stop him. During his walk, Jayne decided to check on everybody. After the last twenty-four hours, he had a powerful need to know where everyone on the crew was and if they were alive.

Mal and Simon were worst off. They'd been carted away first when the Operative gave the word that the crew was to be cared for and released. Zoë and Kaylee were next. The government docs cleaned Zoë's wound, fixed some nerve and muscle damage, and rebandaged it. In the bed next to her, Kaylee was hooked up to a drip to purge the poison out of her system.

He found Inara and the girl in a little lounge near the room where Mal was in surgery. It was clear that the girl didn't want to be there. Inara wanted to be near Mal, although she couldn't leave River, and the girl refused to let Inara from her side. She was curled into the Companion's side and clutched the older woman's arm like she would be wrenched away any moment. He could hear her muttering under her breath when he came near.

Inara, her eye makeup smudged and now only enhancing the dark bags under her eyes, looked up when she heard his footsteps. "Have you seen him? How is he?"

"Still under the knife, looks like," Jayne answered. "He got beat pretty good this time."

Inara leaned forward and looked like she would to get up from the couch she and River sat on and go see for herself, but River tightened her grip. "No! No, don't go. They'll take me. They'll take me back. Don't let them take me back. Please. Please, don't let them take me."

Inara sighed and rubbed the girl's shoulder. "I'm not going, sweetie. I'm right here."

"She been like that this whole time?" Jayne asked.

"Yes. Ever since the feds got the stand down order, River's been shaking and incoherent. She doesn't want to be left alone. Though, if I'd had done to me what they did to her, I would be acting the same way."

"Yeah," he murmured. "Hey, look. I'll sit with her if you need to use the head, or if ya wanna go check on Mal yourself."

"I would appreciate that, but you may have to help me pry her off."

Jayne nodded, and stepped over. Inara began to pull away and River cried as she dug her nails into Inara's arms to keep her there. "No! You promised!"

"Honey, I'm just going to use the restroom," Inara said. "Jayne's right here. You'll be fine with him."

"No, No. They'll come out of the shadows out of the walls and they'll take her back to needles and chairs and make her a lab rat show dog again. Don't go."

Jayne managed to wriggle his good hand between Inara's arm and the girl's claws. "She won't be gone but a minute, girl, and I'll be right here."

River jumped when his palm touched hers, and turned her face out of Inara's shoulder to look at him as if she didn't realize he had been there the whole time. She had a gash on her forehead, and the blood was dried in drips and caked up in her eyebrow. Her eyes darted back and forth between his. "They won't take ya back," he swore. "I'll be right here next to ya on the couch, an' I won't let 'em."

She didn't look convinced. She begged Inara to stay, and given her shared history with Jayne, feds, and hospitals, he really couldn't blame her.

Her patience wearing thin, Inara huffed, "Mei-mei, I need to go use the restroom, and then I'll be right back. Let Jayne keep you safe until I get back. I'll only be gone a few minutes."

She whimpered, but she let them peal her hands away from Inara's bicep. As soon as the Companion was out of sight and Jayne sat down, River jumped to her feet. Her boots, soles still sticky with Reaver blood, squeaked on the floor and left red tracks as she paced. He let her go a few circuits before the noise and her constant mumbling make him crack. He reached out and grabbed her arm below the elbow, his fingers smearing the blood there.

"Sit your ass down." He pulled her down onto the couch next to him. "You're irritatin' me, and that pacin with blood-covered boots just makes ya look crazier." When Jayne released her, he wiped the blood from her arm off on his pants. "Hasn't anybody looked you over yet? A lot of this blood's yours."

"No. No needles. I'm not going with them anywhere," she rambled.

"Not even if the needle has medicine? Who knows what you could catch from a Reaver, an' you got their blood all mixin' up with yours." He stopped one of the Alliance crewmen on his way passed and asked for a first aide kit. The kid in uniform glared at him like Jayne had killed his Pa. On another day Jayne would fix that, but he was too tired, and since the crew was responsible for bringing down Reavers that probably killed a few of the boy's friends, Jayne decided not to take offence. In a minute, the uniform returned with the first aide box and Jayne set in on the couch between him and River. "Gonna hafta twist since I only got use of the one hand."

River swiveled on the seat so that she faced him. Jayne looked her over and catalogued her injuries. There was the one on her head, and the one on her arm that he already saw. There was a pretty good scrape on her calf, and a cut near one knee. Her lip was puffy and raw from recently being busted.

Jayne opened the box and pulled out an alcohol swab. "Here, open this," he directed. "You got any hurts other than what I see?"

"I believe one of my fingers may be broken," she admitted as she handed him back the opened packet.

"And ya still managed to hold onto 'Nara like that? Musta hurt like a bitch."

"It is painful."

He reached into the kit and pulled out one of the big popsicle thingies, the gauze, and the medical tape. "Which finger?"

River held out her left hand. Her ring finger was purple and swollen.

"Don't suppose you set in on your own yet?" he asked. "No? Didn't figure. This is gonna hurt."

She nodded, and he took her hand. After second thoughts, he pulled his right arm out of the sling and added it to the other one to feel along her finger and pop the little bones back in place. River screamed and new tears left tracks in the grime on her cheeks. Jayne quickly placed the popsicle stick along her finger and into her palm to keep her from moving it. He wrapped the gauze around it to splint the finger, and then wrapped the entire thing up in medical tape for extra support.

He pulled the alcohol out of the packet River had opened and used it to wipe the blood away from the wound on her forehead. He went through three of them just on that one area. He used seven on the cut on her right arm. He wasn't gentle or meticulous like Simon always was, but he made sure that the broken skin wasn't going to get infected. When he got to her knee, he shook his head. "Can't believe you fought them Reavers and the worst you get is a broken finger. Don't even need stitches in a one of these."

"I was their star pupil, prize subject. They taught me well."

"Yeah, an' you made 'em eat it," he reminded her.

Drawn-out moments passed in silence before River spoke. "I would like to apologize. Not for the can. You deserved that. You were going to send me back."

He looked up at her knowing eyes, and didn't know what to say.

"Nothing _to_ say," she assured him. "It was done, it's over. I'm sorry for what happened on Beaumonde. I don't remember most of it. I came down the stairs, I heard the awful music of a badly worked out marketing stratagem, and then…I woke up in the pantry cuffed to the floor. But I heard what was said. I know I killed people there. I knocked you out, and I held a gun on the Captain."

He saw tears trembling on her eyelashes as she tried to blink them away. "Yeah, well, it's….you know."

"No, it's not," she protested. "Not okay. I hurt people, and then I dragged you all out to Miranda. And now Wash is gone, and so is Shepherd Book, and the odd man with all the Cortex connections, and so many others who did not need to die for this."

"Look, girl—"

"You should have done it," she choked. "You should have put a bullet in me. Don't know why you didn't."

"An' that just shows what _zhen de shi tian cai_ you are," he snapped desperate to change the subject. "Mal would'a killed me if'n I shot you even to wound much less kill."

"He wouldn't after what he saw me do."

"Oh, yeah, he would'a. Now shut up." Jayne found a tube of antibiotic cream in the first aide kit and applied that to her cuts before he bandaged them up.

He really did try to concentrate, but something she said kept popping back into his mind, and finally he couldn't resist asking. "You mean, you don't remember any of that fight in the bar? Not _any_ of it?"

She sniffed and shook her head. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, nothin'. Never mind."

It was too late—she saw what he was asking about. "Oh my—!"

After all they'd been through that day, the amount of blood she managed to get into her face that quick was a feat. She was just so shocked. Could he really help it if he laughed? It hurt his shoulder something fierce, but he couldn't help it.

River saw him snickering, and the day's shock finally smashed her already cracked veneer of control. She started giggling, and when she lifted her hand to cover her mouth, she quickly pulled it away with a disgusted face. "I'm going to have to scrub them."

Jayne laughed until he got a pain in his side. Under the cover of laughter, he let the tears leak out and stream down his face. River understood the psychological explanation for what was happening, but she giggled right along with him.

Inara returned to find Jayne bent over, gasping for breath, and still finding enough to let out an occasional chuckle. River was sprawled at the other end of the couch with her right hand held out in front of her and her left arm thrown over here eyes as she chortled.

"Are you two alright?"

Jayne looked up. The tears left tracks down his cheeks, but they were covered with grease and grime again when he ran a hand over his face to try and wipe away his amusement. "Yeah, we're fine. What took ya so long?"

"I wanted to wash my face," she said. Her eyes were now clear of makeup, but it was the red eyes that revealed her real reason she took so long in the restroom. "Also, I ran into one of the doctors on my way back. He said that Simon is in recovery now. Mal is in the last stages of surgery. The sword pierced his kidney, and there's a lot of internal damage. They've managed to patch most of it up. Now they're onto the cosmetics—sewing him back up, some scar reduction, and fixing the damage to his face, his eye."

"They'll be okay?" Jayne asked.

"It will take a few weeks for Simon to heal completely," Inara recited. "Longer than Kaylee took when she was shot because of the time laps between being shot and getting treatment. Mal will take a little longer. Somewhere over a month."

"Serenity," a worn-out, rag-doll River whispered. "I want to go home, please."

Inara came to the couch, and River sat up. She scooted next to Jayne so that the woman had room to sit down. She wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder. "We'll go home soon, honey. I promise."

"Do we even have a place to go back to?" Jayne wondered. "She's pretty banged up."

"Bird with broken wings," River murmured.

"A broken neck, an' no one to fly her," he added. "Not less Mal decides to hire someone new. I don't know how I feel about someone new joinin' the crew now."

"I agree," Inara said.

There was a moment of quiet. River leaned down and untied her boots so that she could bring her feet up onto the couch next to Jayne's leg. "I can fly."

They looked at the girl between them, and she repeated, "I can fly. Wash would let me sit on the bridge with him sometimes. I watched. I memorized it all."

Inara pulled in a deep breath and nodded. "I have money saved up. It won't be enough to completely rebuild Serenity, but it would be a start."

"I say we make the feds pay for it," Jayne said. "It's the ruttin' least they could do."

River gave a sad smile. "We fly again?"

"It'll take time," Inara said. "But we can do it."

A throat cleared off to the left. All three looked over to see a doctor standing a few steps away from the couch. Inara squeezed River's shoulders and went to see what the news was. River shifted on the couch when Inara removed her support.

She reached over and tugged on Jayne's loose sling. "Need to keep your arm supported and stationary in order to heal. Simon would yell."

Jayne slipped his elbow back into the cradle of the sling and let his arm rest. "Thanks."

River sucked in a loud breath and tensed at his side. He looked over and then followed her line of sight down the hall where the government Operative stood with a few Feds. Jayne patted her knee. "You're not goin' nowhere."

She slid her arms through his, and buried her face in his shoulder. "I want to go home."

"We'll be home soon."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_zhen de shi tian cai—_an absolute genius


	4. Serenity BDM pt 2

River worked on the frayed and fried wiring in the conduit above the engine room. The Operative had agreed to issue government funds to help finance the rebuilding of _Serenity_, and once Kaylee was well enough to leave the _Galahad's_ infirmary, the repairs went much faster. Conversely, River found, once her brother was deemed well enough to help fixing the boat, repairs slowed considerably. They hadn't had sex yet, but making out and groping sessions distracted them from their task daily. Sometimes hourly.

Kaylee was currently getting distracted by her brother just below River's work station. She could feel their hormones rising and their thoughts fill with sensations of the other. It was sort of icky.

River put aside the pliers and wire cutters, and leaned down out of the duct just as Kaylee and Simon slid to the floor. Simon had his shirt off, but Kaylee was still mostly dressed. Though if those wandering hands had anything to do with it, they wouldn't be for long.

&&&

Jayne tromped down the hall from the bridge. It took some maneuvering for Mal, Zoë, and him to fit that new glass in the frame up there especially with him still only able to use the one hand. The other two were still up there with the sealant gun putting the finishing touches on their new windshield, and he was to go out and disengage the cable reel from the top of the boat. He needed Kaylee's help, though. One because he needed the other arm, and two because he didn't want to do something stupid and get fried again.

The first thing he saw was River Tam's head poking out of a vent in a ceiling duct with her long hair spilling down. He frowned and tried to see what she was doing. Once he noticed Kaylee and the Doc on the floor with their hands in all manner of interesting places, he figured it out.

He snerked, and cleared his throat real loud.

They jumped apart. Kaylee rolled to glare at Jayne where he laughed in the doorway. "_What_?"

"Hey, don't go takin' that tone with me," he teased. "I was doin' ya a favor. Figured you wouldn't want to be sexin' for an audience."

At their confused expressions, Jayne pointed up. Simon flicked his gaze upward to find his little sister grinning down at him.

"River!" He turned scarlet. "Y-you were up there that whole time?"

"I was waiting to see how long it would be before one of you remembered," she giggled.

Kaylee slapped her hand to her face. "Oh my gawd!"

Obviously, the only ones who found this funny were River and Jayne.

Jayne shook his head. "I'm guessin' that the rewirin' in here ain't done yet." Kaylee shook her head, and he sighed. "All right. Come on, girl. You can help as good as Kaylee, I bet, with that genius brain of your'n. An' this way if you two lovebirds wanna go at each other, you'll have some privacy."

River slid down from the duct and leaned down to help her brother to his feet before she left the room. At the door, she turned back wearing a little-sister-grin. "Do try to complete your task before you start to play."

Kaylee reached for the handle of the door and eased it shut. "Good-bye, River."

"Bye!" She leaned into the last few open inches before Kaylee completely got the door closed and yelled, "Have good sex!"

Simon's retort was cut off by steel.

Jayne and River both doubled laughed outside. When they were settling down, Jayne pointed to the stairs. "Come on. We still got work to do."

River nodded and started toward the stairwell. She wasn't moving quite as fast as he'd like—or that was what he would tell someone if they asked—so he smirked, and slapped her on the ass. "Ain't got all day!"

She yelped and spun around. Her mouth was open in surprise and eyes wide as soup bowls. She looked so comically shocked he couldn't help but laugh.

"I couldn't resist. 'Sides, I owed ya one, remember, grabby?"

The exact color of red she turned was hard to describe. He thought it was probably somewhere between the filling of a cherry pie and candied beets. Or maybe cranberry sauce. He was kind of surprised that so much blood got into her face at one time.

River was at a loss for words, but finally settled for, "Don't do that again."

She turned around and continued down the stairs, but put her hands back to guard her rump as Jayne laughed and laughed at her.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

snerk snort + smirk


	5. Shindig

Note: This is perhaps the most fictional of all the missing/extended scenes. I beg forgiveness.

**SHINDIG**

River sat cross-legged on the floor in the cargo bay and looked up at the catwalk. She sighed and drew Kaylee and Jayne attention from their game of horse shoes.

"What's wrong, River?" Kaylee asked.

"Captain is an idiot."

Jayne's bark of laughter echoed off the belly of the ship.

Kaylee tried not to giggle, and said, "River! Why would ya say that?"

River pointed to the walk near the stairs, and the two crewmembers looked up in time to see the Captain leave Inara's shuttle and the Companion shutting the door with a clang.

"Well, alright then," Mal said to the closed door. He hesitated a second, adjusted his suspenders, and walked dup the stairs to the bridge.

"Doesn't know when to cease speaking. Retreat now to fight another day. Stubborn. Redundant. Pretentious."

Jayne shook his head. "What's 'at mean?"

"Pretentious: presumptuous, arrogant, pompous. An attitude or belief that one is better than one is."

His brows came together as Jane considered it. He nodded. "Good word."

"You two are bein' mean!" Kaylee said. "Cap'n ain't pompous or none of that other stuff."

Jayne snorted, and River rolled her eyes.

"Pride goeth before the fall," the girl intoned.

The Captain clomped down the stairs and halted any further discussion. "Jayne, Kaylee. We're landin' soon. Get ready to head out. An' River, how 'bout you go on an' find your brother, and you find somethin' nice and quiet for the both of ya to do 'til we get back."

River uncurled from the floor and headed back into the passenger dorm. "Going to get into trouble."

_When don't we get into trouble?_ Jayne thought. He brushed the crazy babbling off and got to cleaning up the horseshoes.


	6. The Train Job

**The Train Job—339 words**

He found the Doctor's creepy little sis on the couch in the lounge outside the passenger dorms. Jayne was beginning to wonder if the screaming and babbling she did when she first crawled out of the cryo-box was a permanent mental issue. Her knees were drawn up on the cushion, and she was rocking. She stared into the infirmary with wide, bloodshot eyes. As far as he saw, there was nothing interesting going on in the empty room, but the girl seemed fascinated.

"Hey. D'you blink, or what?"

"I blink. I wink. I used to sleep, but they took that away and gave me dreams. There are spies in the mattresses."

"Is that supposed to make sense?"

"Not to you. Not to you."

Jayne shifted into a more intimidating pose, and crossed his arms. "You some kinda freak? 'Cause I figure Mal didn' plan on brinin' no freaks onboard."

"Can't sleep in my room. Not for sleeping. Deep waves, but REM cycles are reserved for the lab."

"So go sleep in the med chair!" he snapped. This girl gave him a mighty uncomfortableness. When she looked up at him with her veiny owl-eyes, the skin-creeping feeling increased.

Her eyes filled with tears. The part of Jayne that still listened to his mother's voice permanently implanted in his head cringed. It wasn't nice to make girls cry.

The girl nodded. "Sleep cycles are mandatory. Must be given, or the body takes them."

"Yeah. You sleep, or you eventually pass out. Thanks for the biology lesson."

She ignored him. She got up and walked into the infirmary. He watched her through the window as she climbed onto the chair in the middle of the room and laid it back.

Did she really plan on sleeping in a fully lit room with that one bright light in her face? Weird, creepy, freakish girl. Surely Mal had some idea up his sleeve. Ain't no one in their right mind would keep a defective little thing like that if'n they didn't have some reason.


	7. War Stories

**War Stories**

**Disclaimer: no es mio; all hail Joss and Co.**

"_Uh, I just got a wave from Inara. No luck with the Councilor. What are they doin'?"_

"_Fixin' to get themselves killed."_

"_We're gonna go get the Captain."_

"_Oh. Good! Can they do that?"_

"_No. "_

"_You know, there's a certain motto. A creed among folks like us. You may have heard it: Leave no man behind."_

"_Suicide."_

Jayne strolled out of the galley headed to his bunk. Wash and Zoë were never coming back if they went to get Mal—if the Captain was even alive at this point. He thought back over the time since Mal and Wash were taken. Probably Mal was still alive. From what he'd seen at the first meet, Niska liked to keep his victims alive for as long as possible. Gave him the heebies. Jayne would kill a man easy enough. He would even go so far as to cut on 'em if they had information he needed and they were not in a sharing mood. But just as incentive. He would rather fight a man face to face than do violence while he was down. Just wasn't as fun that way.

"Going to die."

The little voice came from the other hallway made him jump half out of his skin. Jayne turned to see the crazy girl leaning against the wall in the narrow strip of hall connecting the stairwell to the main stretch of the ship. She wrung with her hands in front of her chest, and stared at the opposite wall like she could read the future written there.

Can she?

Jayne clamped his jaw tight, ashamed that he'd let the little dust mite spook him. "Yeah, they is. An' when they're gone, this'll be my ship, an' the first thing I'm gonna do is throw you an' your pansy-ass brother off it."

"No," she whispered, still staring off. "Won't get the chance."

"That so?" he blustered.

"All the king's horses and all the king's men are going to try to rescue him." She sniffled, and started to rock. "Book gets closed. Hole in Simon's head. Little ants invade our ship. Take it. Kaylee goes down, but it takes days for her to die. Inara gets away and takes the girl, but all the softness and beauty is gone. All the red goes blue."

She looked up at him. Every hair on Jayne's body stood on end as she stared through him. He took a step back.

"And Jayne goes squish."

"River?" Inara's voice interrupted. Jayne jumped again. A moment later, the Companion reached the landing. "Honey? You need to come with me now. You're brother's going to be busy for a while. Come on into my shuttle, and you can draw while I talk to the Counselor."

Inara gave Jayne a disappointed, angry glance before mentally dismissing him. The girl's eyes never left him as Inara put her arm around her shoulder and led her back down the stairs.

"They need you," she murmured.

Jayne turned from them and went to his bunk. He loaded the fuck up with all his best girls, and joined the crew in the cargo bay.


	8. Ariel

**Missing ARIEL scenes**

"_If I didn't know better I'd say you were ready to save some lives."_

"_Now all we need is a couple of patients."_

"_Corpses, actually. For this to work River and I will have to be dead."_

" _Huh. I'm starting to like this plan_."

Simon scowled at Jayne. When he spoke, he directed his instructions to Mal. "Just give me about a half hour to mix the drugs, and convince River to take it. We should be out by nine-thirty—er, twenty-thirty, ship time, I guess."

Mal nodded. "I'll leave ya to it, Doctor."

"Thanks…uh," Simon reached up and tugged on his ear. "I'll also have an antidote made up. I'll leave them in the infirmary. When you get us to St. Lucy's morgue, a shot on the inner bend of the elbow should bring us out in about fifteen minutes."

"Will do."

The Doctor nodded, and wandered away.

"This should be all kinds of fun," Jayne snickered.

"Jayne," Zoe warned.

Kaylee came over and smacked his arm. "Can you just try an' be nice? He's doin' this for his sister."

Jayne snorted, and went to lean against the side of the ambulance skiff. He could already feel his muscles tightening up. He didn't exactly feel good about what he was going to do, but he felt ready. He wished he could go and grab some of his guns—especially Vera—and a change of clothes, but he would have to make due with the ones he had on under the EMT uniform. Not like he could come back here once the Tam's were gone. Mal'd shoot him dead, so it was best to high-tail it out once he got his reward.

_With all that cash, he'd be able to buy more cloths and guns, anyhow_, he thought with a smirk.

&&&&

Mal slapped his hands down on his knees. "Welp, it's time. Wash, you warm the skiff. Zoe, pop the stretchers. Me an' Jayne'll go get our corpses."

Jayne grunted, and started ahead of Mal down to the passenger dorms. He tried to keep his pace slow and casual, but he was itching to get this done. As soon as he slid the door of Simon's room open, he froze. They really did look dead. He'd seen someone who OD'd before, and they syringe on the floor next to the Doc's hand looked exactly like the one next to Mikey when he kicked it.

"You goin' in, or are ya just gonna stand there?"

He sent a glare back over his shoulder at Mal, and moved into the room. God, they were so pale. It gave him the crawling jeebies just looking at them.

Mal moved over to the girl laid out on the bed. "I'll get her, you get the Doc. Don't want you bangin' her into anything tryin' to get back at her."

Jayne snorted. "Prob'ly a good idea."

He hefted Simon's dead weight over his shoulder, and led the way out of the passenger area, back up to the bay. Once the Tams were snapped into the stretcher-coffin-things, Jayne climbed into the skiff, and started rehearsing his line.

"We applied the cortical electrodes, but were unable to get a neural response….We applied…"

&&&&

Once in the morgue, it was Mal and Zoë who moved Simon onto one of the cutting tables, and Jayne who got stuck with the girl. He flipped open the catches on the top of the stretcher, and found himself looking down at River, pale and small and seemingly dead. He felt a twinge of anger, near hatred, fizzle through his chest and stomach as he crouched down and lifted River onto the opposite table.

She was light and limp as a doll. Her hair swung against his arm and thigh as he pivoted with her. The girl's face was peaceful for the first time since he'd known her. No tantrums, no crazy fits, no spooky comments about blue hands. Her mouth opened a little as he picked her up. He closed it as soon as she was settled.

Mal nodded at him to step back, and then he moved in with the meds that would wake them up. Jayne watched the girl as the Captain moved on to Simon. He knew it was going to take them a few minutes to wake up. It should give him enough time to contact that McGinnis fella.

"_That should bring them out of it in a few minutes. Once they're up, get them to the imaging suite. Let Simon do his thing, and haul it back to the rendezvous. Fifty minutes." _

"_Got it. I'll just sit right here."_


End file.
